The Sound of Your Voice
by rawleydinosaur
Summary: Lovino and Antonio meet, become friends, and fall in love. Their time together gets cut short, however, when they learn that Antonio only has a little bit longer to live. M for safety and later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Lovino sat at the bus stop, staring absentmindedly at his shoes. He was lost in thought, replaying the day's events in his head. Damn that Feliciano, always getting them into trouble. They were really gonna get it if he couldn't fix it. He was so lost in thought, he almost didn't see the bus idling in front of him. "Yo, Mister, ya gonna get on or what?" the bus driver called, irritated.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Lovino mumbled, stepping on to the overcrowded bus, managing to snag a seat next to a tall, curly-haired Spanish man, who immediately looked over and grinned. Lovino gave him back one of his signature grim glares, which only seemed to further encourage him.

"Hola!" the man trilled excitedly, flashing another bright smile. Lovino turned slightly, looking into the man's coffee colored eyes with a frown. "Hi," he said, not really wishing to continue the conversation any further. But apparently, the Spanish man had other plans.

"So, where are you headed?" He asked Lovino, placing his bag on the floor to make more room for the brown-haired stranger. "Home," Lovino said curtly, trying to give his most obvious indication for the man to shut up. "Look, do I know you? I'm sure I don't, so why are you talking to me?"

Antonio shrugged. "I was just wondering. Just trying to make conversation. You don't have to bite my head off about it. Unless you want to." He added, waggling a suggestive eyebrow.

"You're disgusting. I'd slap you if there weren't so many people around." Lovino muttered, reaching over to pull the bell signaling his stop. He was all too relieved to see his crappy old apartment complex, and he scuttled quickly off the bus, until he realized that the strange man was getting off at the same stop. "What the hell? Are you **following** me?" Lovino spat, clutching his bag tightly to his chest.

"Um, no? I'm just going to my apartment, where I live. Loosen up a little bit, will you? Geez. If we're going to be friends, you have to be less uptight." The Spaniard explained, pointing to the building.

"Crap… " Lovino muttered under his breath, mentally slapping himself twice—once for making a fool out of himself in front of this stranger who was apparently his new neighbor, and once for the fact that this stranger was indeed _his new neighbor. _"And no one said we were going to be friends, bastard! But, I live here too. Did you just move here? I've never seen you here." He jabbed the button on the elevator, ninth floor. "What floor do you need?"

"Same one, ninth. And yes, I moved here a few months ago. You probably don't see me because my work schedule requires me to leave early in the morning and return pretty late at night." He shrugs. Lovino considered this as they walked to their homes, still going in the exact same direction. It was true, he and Feliciano never really woke up before noon, considering they were both such fans of siestas and that their schedules didn't really require them to be up early, so it made sense that he had never seen the man before. Finally, they reached their destinations, and both began to pull out their keys.

"Dammit! You live next door too? God." Lovino grumbled as he unlocked his door, earning a warm 'Welcome home fratello!' from Feliciano who was cooking pasta at the stove. He was just about to slam the door in his 'neighbor's' face but paused, and turned around to face him. "I'm Lovino… In case you wanted to know." He said, a bit more shyly than he had intended to.

"Oh, right. Antonio," the Spanish man replied, with yet another one of his dopey –looking grins, extending his hand to the shorter man. Lovino rejected the hand, finally getting his chance to slam the door. He leaned against the closed doorframe and sank to the floor, trying to process what was going on. There was something about that Antonio. It was weird, he never was one to strike up conversation with someone that he just met, but Antonio was… intriguing. 'Maybe I'll finally have a friend other than Feliciano…?' he thought to himself, standing up to put his coat away. He then shook his head vigorously. No. Who was he kidding? Lovino Vargas didn't make friends, especially with annoyingly intruding bastards like Antonio.

Outside the door, Antonio stood, his hand still outstretched, dumbfounded. He had never met someone as rude as the little Italian boy. He shook his head and grinned, unlocking his own door and walking inside, flicking on the lights. As he plopped down on the couch to watch some TV, he thought to himself, 'I guess we'll just have to do something about that little attitude of his, won't we?'


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next day, Antonio was off from work, because it was Saturday. His friends, Gilbert and Francis, were coming over, but not for a while, so he decided to sleep in. They got there earlier than expected though, and by nine o' clock, they were banging on his door loudly, shouting his name.

"Antonio! An-to-ni-oooooo! Open the door, would ya? Your awesome friends, Gilbert and Francis, are here to see you, like we promised! C'mon, Antonio!" Gilbert yelled, his voice loud and booming enough to eventually break through the sound barrier. He continued knocking and shouting for about ten minutes before a crowd of angry neighbors began to form, and he succeeded in waking up a very angry Italian in the apartment next door.

"Hey Gilbert, you bastard! If that's you, can you please, _please,_ do me, and everyone else in this building a favor and _shut the hell up_?!" he yelled through the door. "Me and Feliciano are trying to sleep here!" Antonio continues to sleep deeply, for the previous day's long hours had worn him out, not hearing the commotion and loud shouts. Gilbert, however, heard the voice, and recognized it.

"Lovino? Is that you?" He asked the door next to his friend's. the voice that he'd heard sure sounded like his brother's boyfriend's brother's voice, and he _did_ know his name… but he wanted to be sure. Lovino sighed, rubbing his temples exasperatedly on the other side of the door.

"Yes, you stupid moron, it's me, Lovino, in the flesh and bones right in front of you, about to rip your goddamn throat out for waking me up this damn early on a Saturday. Now if you'd do me a kindness, and get out, shut up, leave forever, go kill yourself, _anything._ Just don't make any more noise!" he shouts at him, swinging the door open to show to the full extent of how angry he is, mouth threatening to froth at any second. Gilbert simply replied, "When did you move here? Oh, while you're here, West wanted me to tell you to tell Feli to stop calling him at strange hours. Make sure you tell him that for me." He then turned away and began his racket again, pounding away at the door, shouting "Antonio! Get your lazy ass up and open the door! Your neighbors sure are getting cranky! Francis and I are waitin'!"

The Frenchman, who up until now had remained relatively quiet, piped up, "Oui, mon ami, we have been waiting quite long, and although it is a pleasure indeed to have seen your adorable little neighbor, I am growing impatient! ~"

Antonio, having finally heard the noise, padded sleepily to his door, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Si?" he asked, opening the door. "Oh. Francis. Gilbert. You're early." He said.

"Yeah, and they've woken up nearly the entire goddamn building! Antonio, tell your dumbass friends to keep their mouth closed and stop making such noise!" Lovino shouted as a very sleepy Feliciano also made his way to the doorway as well, trying to see what all the yelling was about. Rubbing his eyes, he looked up to see Gilbert and Francis, and was overcome with immediate joy.

"Gilbert! And big brother Francis! You're here! Have you come to visit me and Lovi?" he said, suddenly not sleepy and ignoring the hand of his brother trying to pull him back into the house. His efforts were futile, though, as Lovino nearly threw him inside and slammed the door, for the second time in twenty four hours, causing a long whine to be heard from their side of it from Feliciano. The Spaniard was laughing uneasily, still trying to calm his rowdy friends, but the German wasn't having it. Recognizing the face, he walked back over to the door that the Italian twins shared and called out "Feliciano!"

The younger opened the door up tentatively; for fear that his brother would slam it shut again. He didn't, but you could still hear a growl escape from his lips. Upon seeing Feliciano, Francis was enthralled. "Feliciano! Long time no see, non?" Francis said, walking over to the apartment door and wrapping the younger Italian boy in a hug. "And you as well, Lovino." He said, resisting the urge to do the same.

"Well, Feliciano, yes and no," Gilbert stated, answering his question from before. "We actually came to visit our friend Tonio over here, but since we finally know where you live, we can all hang out together, _all the time!_" Gilbert exclaimed, earning groans from the crowd still formed outside of their door. With this, Feliciano looked excitedly at Lovino, eyes bright and happy. "Can we, Lovi? Can we, can we, can we, pleeeeeeeease?" he begged.

"B-but I'm not dressed yet, and I haven't even had a chance to brush my-!" he shouted, as he was forcefully dragged into the apartment next door, earning sighs of relief as the door finally shut behind the rowdier two as well. The crowd dispersed, to salvage what was left of the Saturday morning.

Antonio wasn't dressed either, and he stood awkwardly in his boxers and white t-shirt. He smiled another uneasy smile, letting in his neighbors who he still didn't know very well. "Hola," he greeted the two who sat down on his couch, followed by his two older friends. "So, you are… Feliciano?"

"Si, I am~! And this is my big brother, Lovi!" he replied, nudging his older brother in the ribs with his elbow. Lovino, eyes glued to the ground at this awkward position, muttered, "We've met, doofus," causing his brother's eyes to go wide.

"Yes, your… brother? And I met by accidentally bumping into each other on the bus…" Antonio explained nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"More like 'accidentally' struck up pointless and annoying conversation," Lovino added. "It's not like we're friends or anything." He shifted nervously in his seat, for Francis was eyeing him up and down like a starving man to a turkey sandwich.

Antonio laughed at this. "I suppose that I was—and still am—curious about you, Lovino. So, tell me about yourselves? How do you two know Gilbert? What do you work as?" he cocks his head in his friend's direction.

Lovino sighed. "Well, my _idiota fratellino_ is dating his _bastardo_ brother," he stated simply, jabbing his thumb toward Gilbert with a scowl. "So it only makes sense that we know him too—a little bit too well for my liking. And as for our jobs, I'm an art teacher and Feli is a chef at a small restaurant downtown. He loves to cook." Feliciano nods vigorously.

"Ah, that is very interesting! What do you like to draw, Lovi?" Antonio asks, leaning forward a bit further towards Lovino, causing a crimson red blush to dust his cheeks. He was quite interested to know more about the two—well, mainly Lovino—considering that they were sitting right on his couch. "And what is your restaurant called, Feliciano?"

Lovino swallowed dryly. "I draw… a lot of things. Tell him about your restaurant, Feli…" to which Feliciano happily obliged, going into a long ramble about all of the different kinds of pasta that was served there before Francis cut him off.

"Well, it is a good thing that we came to visit today, non? Otherwise we would have never found out where you two lived!" He smiled, causing Lovino to visibly seem to shrink further in his seat.

"Yeah, that's right!" Gilbert boomed. "West never tells me anything, so whenever we _want _to visit, we can't."

Antonio sighed, not really wanting his friends to be visiting him unexpectedly all of the time, causing a repeat of what happened this morning. At this rate, he'd be evicted from his apartment within weeks. "We'll see," he stated simply.

A few hours went by, all five of them chatting like old friends, and it was soon time for the German and Frenchman to leave.

"Crap, I've gotta go," Gilbert said reluctantly, picking up his phone to receive a very angry text from Ludwig, "looks like West found the prank that I left for him."

"Is it really that bad?" Francis whined, not wanting to leave either.

"Yeah… apparently that stupid Austrian fell for it as well. God, I do _not _want to face the frying pan again. So, I guess, we'll be going." He walks out the door, dragging Francis with him. Antonio sighed happily at their leaving; he was exhausted.

* * *

"Well, thank _Dio_ that they're gone! How can you call that wine bastard and that potato bastard your friends?" Lovino exclaims, stretching from his position on the couch and trying to rouse his brother, who had fallen asleep. "Well, we should get going as well. Feli has to work and I have class. We'll be seeing you, I guess."

"Ah, okay! Wait, do you mind if I go with you? I'm curious to see what—and who—you teach." Antonio says, rising from his chair to follow them.

"I teach kids. At the rec center. And adults on Thursdays. But today's not Thursday. I-I guess you could come, intruding bastard, but you better be ready in an hour or I'm leaving you."

"Don't worry, I'll see you then!" Antonio replied happily, shutting his door and making his way to the shower.


End file.
